Our teaching artists are highly qualified professionals who offer preparation for conservatory exams, post-secondary entrance auditions and festival appearances.
Find a teacher by scrolling through our list or clicking on a name below.
Deborah Miles Emily Zinger
Rachel Casponi Heidi Muendel Emily Zinger
Annette Dominik Isabella Rohner-Tensee Sandra Wilmot
Martin Krátký Laure Matiakh (on sabbatical)
Catharine Dochstader Bailey Finley
Sally Arai
Christopher Young
Charlotte Cossentine
Deborah Miles Bonita Wiens
Jane Dyck
Clarinet & Saxophone
Voice
Rachel Casponi is a performer, director and educator holding a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Drama from University of Windsor and a Masters of Music from University of Western Ontario. She has worked across Canada including with BC’s North Peace Community Choir that she led at their Carnegie Hall performance. A regular performer with the Chamber Musicians of Kamloops and director of local choirs, Rachel teaches for Kamloops-Thompson School District and Kamloops Music Collective. She is very comfortable with both classical and musical theatre repertoire.
Flute and Flute Choir
Violin
Music for Young Children®
Flute
Bailey Finley is a diverse flautist who avidly promotes new music. Her specialty is working with composers to develop new repertoire for the flute.
She is a co-founder of Trio Taco, a new music group that works to make contemporary music more approachable through education. With the trio, Finley has premiered numerous works and performed across Canada. During summer 2018 the trio completed a successful educational tour in Ontario featuring music by living composers.
Finley is an active performer in Victoria’s new music scene often collaborating with the Victoria Composers Collective and other local composers. She was a guest artist for the Victoria Composers Collective during their 2018 Okanagan tour and performer/organizer for their 3rd annual Oak Bay New Music Festival. Outside of the new music scene, Finley also pairs with Emily MacCallum to create a celtic flute and fiddle duo. February 2018 they hosted An Evening of Celtic Music in Kamloops, BC, which raised enough money to send a student to Kamloops Interior Summer School of Music.
Bailey values the sense of community and belonging that music can create and is working to help share this with as many people as possible. Many of her projects feature educational components, sliding scale admission fees and diverse composer demographics.
Cello
Principal cellist of the Kamloops Symphony since 2009, Martin Krátký is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Also core second chair with the Okanagan Symphony, Martin is in demand as a soloist, teacher, chamber musician, and orchestral section leader in the BC Interior. Passionate about education, as well as collaborative/cross-discipline projects, Martin teaches weekly as a faculty member at the Kamloops Symphony Music School and the Kelowna Community Music School.
Born in France, Laure Matiakh began playing the cello at the age of seven, following her earlier studies in harp. She underwent formal training at the National Conservatory of Marseille under the guidance of Odile Gabrielli, where she earned the Certificate of Completion (CFEM) in 2004 and a Premier Prix in chamber music in 2006. She continued her advanced studies in cello performance before moving to Montpellier, where she commenced her geology education at the University of Geoscience.
In 2014, Laure made Kamloops her home after spending four years as an exploration geologist in the North of Quebec. Balancing her geology career, she has remained an active cellist, contributing to various orchestras and ensembles including the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra, the Thompson Valley Orchestra, occasional appearances with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, and participation in the Ambre and Heritage quartets.
Piano & Music Theory
Heidi Muendel (MMus), Dramatic Soprano has a Masters Degree in Music, is a trained opera singer, voice teacher and performer for over 25 years, and dynamic workshop leader. Heidi has recently moved from Germany back to her hometown, and looks forward to creating a safe and playful space to discover your unique voice.
Heidi works with singers of all genres with careful focus on vocal freedom, technique, performance quality, and vocal health. Her approach includes an honouring of the ‘whole’ singer, and is most effective for singers available to: change, discovering their own authenticity, and a bit of silliness.
Heidi has traveled and performed in Canada, United States, Germany, Austria, and Italy. She is the founder of the Life-Sound Studio, Frankfurt where she taught: private voice lessons, singing workshops and ‘Mini Musik’. She was team and workshop leader at the LIGHTHOUSE in Wiesbaden, and is currently providing an annual summer Festival of Singing in Germany, teaching locally in person, and internationally online
Isabella has been playing both violin and piano since she was five years old, and has been teaching for the past six years. She recently moved to Kamloops from Ontario, where she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Child Studies from the University of Guelph. Having completed her Grade 8 Royal Conservatory for Violin, she enjoys working with students of all ages, and emphasizes individualizing lesson plays for each student so they can learn to really enjoy playing their chosen instrument. Isabella is excited to start teaching music lessons in Kamloops, and play in the Kamloops Brandenburg Orchestra.
Sandra Wilmot is a Kelowna-based freelance violinist, educator, piano accompanist, clinician, journalist, and award-winning composer. She plays regularly with both the Okanagan and Kamloops Symphony Orchestras and maintains a large studio of private students and string ensembles at the Kelowna Community Music School, Kamloops Symphony Music School, and Penticton Academy of Music. She has played professionally with various other orchestras across Canada, including the Saskatoon Symphony, and has attended many prominent orchestral and early music intensive summer programs. Sandra has also worked extensively as a classroom music teacher and has taught at various summer music camps throughout the B.C. Interior and currently runs one of B.C.’s largest string camps, Strings the Thing which takes place every July in Kelowna. Sandra is a graduate of the University of British Columbia.
Piano, Voice
Emily holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree (with Distinction) majoring in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy as well as a Church Music Diploma from King’s University, Edmonton. She is a long-time member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS).
Zinger Studios in Edmonton was Emily’s private studio for 25 years. Focusing on technique, vocal ease and vocal health, she teaches all genres with special emphasis on creating hybrid vocal athletes. Her students have consistently received First Class Honours in both Voice & Piano exams (RCM & Conservatory Canada) and many of her graduates have gone on to post-secondary voice/piano/theatre institutions to complete their studies and start their musical careers. There is nothing that excites Emily more (except maybe her grandchildren), than hearing and seeing her students blossom into confident, expressive and versatile musicians.
Always astonished by the fabulous instrument that is the voice, the opportunity to teach, learn from and do research for a leading otolaryngologist (ENT) in Edmonton imbued Emily with a passion for the study of voice science. She then attended the Voice Foundation’s Symposium for Care of the Professional Voice in Philadelphia, officially transforming her into a self-professed voice science geek.
Her other training experience includes Somatic Voicework, Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Technique and Level 1 Estill Method™. She is also Level 1 certified in Heather Lyle's Vocal Yoga™.
Emily now calls beautiful Kamloops home and continues to teach voice, piano and, theory.